Wet Ink: Ace Hotel DTLA
As part of Lambda Litfest, 2019, Ania Catherine curated and moderated Wet Ink at Ace Hotel Downtown LA.
A selection of queer LA-based artists and writers spanning the fine art, film, and music realms read a piece they've created in written form about/related to an experience of intimacy or eroticism between women. After each reading, the artist will share insight on their process of bringing a moment of viscerality into language, specifically in the context of a world oversaturated with images of lesbian sex but void of lesbian representation. The session closes with a conversation between the moderator and artists about the role of writing in processing, understanding, and documenting queer experiences, followed by an audience Q&A.
ARTISTS
ORGANIZER & MODERATOR
Ania Catherine
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Participant Bios:
MADAME GANDHI
Based in Los Angeles and a native of New York City, Kiran Gandhi, aka Madame Gandhi, is a singer, percussionist, activist and music industry thinker known for her electronic-based sound and fourth-wave feminist perspective. Former drummer for MIA and Thievery Corporation before starting her solo project, she studied Political Science, Mathematics, and Women’s Studies at Georgetown University and received her M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. Gandhi has been featured on Forbes’ “30 Under 30” list and her 2018 “Own Your Voice” TED Talk has been viewed 200,000+ times. She also previously served as the first digital analyst at Interscope Records in Los Angeles. Madame Gandhi now tours full-time as a musician and speaker. She speaks about fourth-wave feminism, modern gender equality, and menstrual care access and is working on her next album.
TRISH BENDIX
Trish Bendix is a writer and editor in Los Angeles, California. Her work has been published in outlets such as the New York Times,Time, Variety, Cosmopolitan, Vulture, Vogue.com, ELLE.com, HarpersBazaar.com, The Hollywood Reporter, Nylon.com, LAmag.com, NBC Out, Slate, and Buzzfeed, among many others. Her fiction has appeared in The Q Review and CellStories and she has essays in the Seal Press anthology Dear John, I Love Jane, More Than Marriage(Ooligan Press), Opposing Viewpoints: Celebrity Culture (Layman Poupard Publishing), Janeland (Cleis Press) and 2 Brides 2 Be (Archer).Trish served as Editor in Chief of both AfterEllen.com and GO Magazine, and as former Managing Editor of the GLAAD and NLGJA Award-winning digital magazine INTO. She is the winner of the 2015 Sarah Pettit Memorial Award for the LGBT Journalist of the Year from the National Lesbian and Gay Journalist Association, of which she's also a member. She is a former board member of the Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association, and a current member of the Television Critics Association. Trish is currently at work on her first novel.
KONA
Kona, a singer songwriter Atlanta raised, singer songwriter now living in Los Angeles California is a culmination and rebirth of her musical influences. With a musical knack she developed at an early age as the daughter of both a jazz singer & soul DJ. Kona, who as at the start of her music career delivers a refreshing take on soul that has already resulted in an impressive online following and creative collaborations. She is a singer/songwriter, entrepreneur, writer, and director. All in all Kona is a talented musician with a live show as authentic, true, and heartfelt as the music she makes.
DEJHA TI
Dejha Ti is an artist and creative technologist based in Los Angeles. Spanning fine art, nightlife, and commercial realms, her practice brings together environments, bodies, and creative technology to create immersive experiences that draw audiences into her idiosyncratic worlds. In collaboration with her creative partner Ania Catherine, Ti launched Operator, an experiential art house that executes their large-scale multifaceted works. The duo has spoken and presented work internationally and has partnered with cultural institutions and companies including Adidas, Art Basel Hong Kong, LACMA, SCAD Museum of Art, Ableton, and CICA Museum.
ANIA CATHERINE (MODERATOR)
Ania Catherine is an artist and director based in Los Angeles. Her work merges performance, film, and choreography and has been shown internationally at the British Film Institute, Art Basel Hong Kong, Peacock Theatre (London), LA Center for Digital Art, Forum des images (Paris), Dansmuseet (Stockholm), CICA Museum (Korea), Traumabar und Kino (Berlin), among others. Her work finds ground in surrealism, cinéma vérité, the aesthetics of boredom, and her studies (academic and physical) of the body as a tool of both learning and unlearning. She holds a master’s degree in Gender and Politics from the London School of Economics. In addition to her personal practice, she works internationally performing, choreographing, speaking, directing, and teaching.